Ryna has shorn her hair short. She always wears a dirty overall. At first glance, the 16-year-old is not recognisable as a girl at all. That is intentional. Her single father wants to keep her with him as long as possible. Preferably forever. Not only because Ryna routinely helps her father in the car factory at the mouth of the Danube. He has raised her like a son he never had. The father runs a strict despotic regiment and observes all attempts by men to make contact with his daughter with the greatest suspicion. Ryna nevertheless sets out to find her female identity. Even a terrible incident her father sets up will not stop her. The wildly poetic beauty of the Danube delta with its stranded ships, flat expanses and reed and shore landscapes that seem like states of mind does the rest to endow this film about a difficult coming-of-age with even more atmospheric density than the beguiling performance of the leading actress already creates. Few words. Lots of atmosphere. Small gestures. Big feelings.(Festival information)
Directed by
2005